On January 19, 2011, I found an online article about Feynman [1]. This article is a must read for Feynman fans, and I am sure that the person who is not yet a Feynman fan would also become a Feynman fan after reading it. I posted the following comment on it to express my little thought about Feynman.
It's regrettable that the publication of our paper that might supersede Feynman's explanation of the mirror puzzle was made after his passing. It would have been quite pleasant to talk with him about this puzzle.
The mirror puzzle is a fairly famous teaser expressed as: "Why does a mirror reverse left and right but not top and bottom?" Recently I just wrote the essence of our paper on Quora in reply to a question there [2].
- "TED-X Caltec pays tribute to Feynman," Analysis by Jennifer Ouellette. "Caltech hosted its first ever TED-X conference last Friday, with talks by a diverse lineup of speakers all celebrating famed physicist Richard Feynman . . ." Discovery, News (January 18, 2011).
- "The mirror puzzle: Reversal is attributed to the direction defined last." IDEA & ISAAC: Femto-Essays (January 14, 2011).
That's an interesting question. I think an answer might be that there are no caustics between your eyes and the mirror >:)
ReplyDeleteCold As Heaven
Your is the kind of answer I've never heard, and I don't understand what exactly it means.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is with the question. The mirror simply reflects. The reason we think it reverses right and left is because people are mostly symmetrical about the vertical axis. So when we look at the image we think its been reversed. However, if you have a ring on your left hand it's right there on the left side of the image.
ReplyDeleteAlso, look at a non-symmetrical object, for example a tea pot side view. The spout doesn't flip.